GYMNASTICS

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, August 20, 2008

With three silver medals tucked away in her room at the Athletes' Village, Shawn Johnson had one last chance to win Olympic gold Tuesday.

But after she failed to complete one solid balance-beam routine in seven warm-up attempts, her coach ordered her to stop. Maybe a pause would help calm the nerves of the 16-year-old who, until now, had always thrived under pressure.

As it turned out, all Johnson needed was for her final Olympic competition to begin. The moment she hopped on the balance beam at Beijing's National Indoor Stadium, Johnson felt right at home.

She didn't think about the scores awarded to the gymnasts who preceded her. She didn't worry about the scores she might get herself. And she tumbled her way to gold.

"For the first time in this whole experience, I really let everything go," Johnson said after taking the gold medal. "It's the perfect ending to my Olympic experience."

Johnson's teammate Nastia Liukin, who won the all-around gold last week, turned in a less difficult yet more elegant routine to claim silver, completing another 1-2 finish by the stars of U.S. gymnasts. Johnson's routine earned 16.225 points; Liukin, 16.025. China's Cheng Fei (15.950) took bronze.

But the most stunning performance on the final day of gymnastics competition was delivered by American Jonathan Horton, who drew gasps and cheers from rivals and spectators alike for his horizontal-bar routine.

Throwing in two new tricks, upping his degree of difficulty and making the Chinese crowd used to acrobatic high jinks go "ooh" and "aah," in expressions of awe in any language, Horton flew to an unexpected silver medal on the final apparatus competed at these Olympics.

"Go big or go down," was Horton's mantra over the past three practice days. As Horton upped the difficulty in his routine at practice, even the Chinese competitors noticed, said Horton's coach Mark Williams. "Sunday when he started doing his stuff, the whole practice gym went quiet. The other guys were asking, 'What is he doing?' "

Going for a medal, it turns out. If not for a small hop on the landing, Horton might have beat out China's Zou Kai, the gold medalist. "He had a very difficult routine," Zou said. "His performance was stunning."

Two for the show

When the chalk dust settled, it was clear China and the U.S. dominated gymnastics in Beijing.

G

S

B

Tot

China

9

1

4

14

U.S.

2

6

2

10

Notes: Eight of China's medals were won by its men. Eight of the U.S. medals by its women. ... The remaining medals went to Romania, Japan and France, each with two.